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Your misquoting the book ‘The corporation’ there. Corporations aren’t akin to Sociopaths, they are akin to Psychopaths (there is a difference) and as such are generally ruthlessly efficient at achieving their goals. With a corporation if (a part of) the management team isn’t working then they’ll be voted out by the shareholders or fellow management (unlike say a private concern such as 3DR where the owners aren’t beholden to anyone, regardless of how stupid their ideas might be). The idea that corporation management can be inept (Ie loss making) in the long term doesn’t hold up under actual scrutiny.

If Take 2 didn’t think the approach they are taking with regard to DNF wasn’t the right one, they wouldn’t be pursuing it. 3DR are between a rock and a hard place financially, ultimately they will either capitulate or bury the game and what’s left of their careers in the process.

This isn’t the sort of case that’s going to take up take more than a couple of days to wrap up, if it even goes to court. I’d expect a resolution (probably the sale of the IP) between now and the Court date.

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There is an assumption you both are making, that T2 management knows exactly what it is doing, will succeed in it’s plan, win the court case etc. Where most management I’ve ever met has been quite clueless. This goes doubly for 3DR obviously.

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Technically corporations are sociopaths, whether that will qualify to either of you as evil or not, and regardless of whether such a label is “childish petulance.” Any single minded institution with only the responsibility of turning a profit will naturally act in morally bankrupt ways. I realise we’re talking about a publishing corporation here. I just don’t forget that there are corporations trying to limit access to water in third world countries, so they can profit off it. I was jesting when I said “pure evil” in regards to T2.. But after your comments I had to rant this out.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRFS-WFlT0Q&fmt=18

Courtesy of the SomethingAwful forums.

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Taking the IP just to spite 3DR and then throw it in the garbage bin to spite gamers isn’t an option for them.

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I don’t believe in anthropomorphising organisations, or attempting to quantify them using quaint abstracts such as ‘good’ or ‘evil’, they simply are. The decisions that they make are based on profitability and loss, not childish petulance. Unlike a private company a corporation has to answer to its shareholders for its actions.

When you understand this, then the actions of corporations become much easier to comprehend. There is zero advantage to Take 2 acquiring the Source code & assets of DNF unless they plan to utilise them in some manner by handing them off to another development team to work upon. There is no profitability in simply sitting on them as they have a finite value as gaming technology is constantly evolving. Corporations operate around profitability, so the obvious conclusion would be they would seek to monetarise them.

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Unfortunately you’ll find that Thomas possesses a bottomless well of forgiveness for the management of 3DR. Forget the fact they’ve spent 13 years faffing around…

Thats not how I’ve been reading his comments (from the other thread), but then again I believe you completely misunderstood me aswell there :) (For the record: I pre-emptively agreed with you, just don’t believe T2 will ressurect the franchise.)

It just seems like you have too much faith in T2′s management. It’s almost like you don’t believe corporations are made of pure evil.

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Can’t someone just say “I’m a lawyer, this is how it is..” and get it over with? The suspense is unbearable! :)

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“@PHeMoX

Yes, although 3DR can be credited with several design concepts it’s clear that they lack the ability to complete a game within a set time-frame.. for this reason, i’d like to see T2 win the case and gain the rights to the IP so that a competent developer might one day release the game.”

You are wrong in believing they weren’t able to ‘finish anything’ in that time span though. Mind you they are the kind of company that used their independent status to make games they want to make, not caring about a publisher that demands the impossible within 6 months. There’s a world a difference between not finishing something because you think you can do even better, or not finishing because you can’t do it at all.

They actually co-created a few games in between! It’s not like they wasted all their time on DNF alone.

3DRealms surely can do it and hopefully when the buzz is gone, they will simply finish DNF this time around. 12-20 million in 12 years really isn’t that much money by the way and they don’t need to waste money on marketing anyways. Their franchise does it all. Heck for all we know this might be a marketing trick after all. My take on this? I think it is and I think Take-Two doesn’t really stand a chance winning the lawsuit (restraining order was already denied by court, evidence of the GT Interactive stuff is weak, etc. ).

It’s stupid to think 3DRealms is ‘just another company’. Of course after a while people aren’t satisfied with ‘when it’s done’ anymore if it takes too long. I don’t blame those people.

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